Never Check Your Email First Or Last

I’m really bad for this, and have been for a very long time. Even though I once announced my new regime would include not checking email first thing so that I could concentrate on getting stuff done, it wasn’t long until I slipped back into the habit.

At the time I was working for only myself, at home, and so had the flexibility to manage my own schedule throughout the day, but these days I don’t have that luxury any more, now that most of my day is spent on someone else’s budget.

So I don’t see anyway that I can keep things responsive for my customers unless I check my email and forums first thing in the morning while eating breakfast, as otherwise I can’t check until lunch time. I’ll have to keep the habit of checking email first thing for now.

Checking email last thing at night is also a habit I’ve acquired over the years, and it affects me just as described by Glen, it tends to take much longer than “just a couple of minutes”, drastically eating into my much needed slumber time.

This one I can and should tackle, from now on I’m going to close down my email client, news-reader (another bad habit along the same lines), and web browser long before finishing up on any work I might be doing in the evening. I will not be opening said offending apps until morning.

No more “I’m just going to check my email” before going to bed, it can wait until I’m fresh and rested from a good night’s sleep.

Yeah, I’m the same, even if I decide to leave something alone before going to bed, often I’ll lay awake thinking about it for a considerable time.

It’s why I have to be careful with working late too, if I’m daft enough to start on something a bit too late and then have to leave it half finished because it’s just getting too late, I’ll not sleep for thinking about the work.